


Butterflies and Feathered Wings

by Mango_Marbles



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Rachel Lives, amberpricefield
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-10-26 17:26:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17750294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mango_Marbles/pseuds/Mango_Marbles
Summary: Rachel was her angel. But after being kept on the verge of death for months, is it possible for her to reclaim that title? Rachel is alive AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Of course I don't own Life is Strange.

**A/N:** Life is Strange contains adult themes. Therefore, adult themes will be present, but not explicitly portrayed.

* * *

She didn't die, but she remembered a fog of events with lightning strike clear moments that explained her voyage from point A to point B. Being trapped in a shed with spotted memories and embedded knives of betrayal felt worse than being trapped in a coffin because of death, blissfully unaware of your fate. How she wished she could be Snow White sleeping in her glass cage with dainty hands so carefully folded on her still chest.

Of all the places they missed searching for her, why the singular place in which she existed? How could they not hear her yelling until her throat was raw and only croaks came from it?

Why was fate so cruel to her? She admitted to making bad choices, but did the punishment need to be so severe?

She wondered if the search efforts stopped. If there had been any to begin with. If she was just another face belonging to memories, no longer a person. A thought that faded a little more each day.

How were her parents handling her disappearance? Did they think she'd run away? She wished she'd said more to them. She wished she'd told them that she loved and appreciated them more often. That she forgave her father for lying, but was still hurt that he felt he needed to hide her real mom from her. That maybe it was too soon for her to plan ditching Arcadia Bay for California and it wasn't because of them. It was because of a dream.

The fight drained out of her a long time ago, and now she waited for a death she was uncertain was coming. Starving herself was considered more than once each day, but once food appeared in front of her and pulled her from the hazy world of delusions her deprived mind conjured, her resolve shattered and she ate until not a scrap remained. It was the same way she attacked water when given it, always just enough to stay alive. Like some kind of animal captured and starved, but—she thought—that wasn't far from the truth.

Such was the power of her captor, to strip away her humanity until she knew little more than what existed within the four walls that caged her. Had this been his plan from the start? Had it all been part of a sick game?

Her body obeyed her for one second—maybe two—at a time, making it impossible to do more than wait for a death she was certain must be close. There was no reason to keep her indefinitely, was there?

She let her heavy eyes close and breathed in the fresh air from outside that slipped in through the shoddy siding with the wind.

_She recognized the girl on the cliff next to the lighthouse through her tears: Max Caulfield. Chloe talked about her now and then, always with a mixture of sadness and adoration in her eyes fighting for dominance over each other. Rachel never figured out how she felt about that mysterious, absent friend of Chloe's._

_Yet Rachel could not approach her, not with the chains around her ankle tethering her to the abandoned shed that had become her home over the past… months? Years? They dug into her flesh, and though this wasn't her physical body, it hurt just the same._

_Max's short hair swayed in the breeze, and Rachel wondered if she, too, felt the energy in the area surrounding them. The way that she could wrap herself in it and let it fill every cell of her body. The way that it waited—begged—to be shaped into reality._

_She breathed in and filled her lungs with that energy, and Max faded away when she exhaled. Rachel supposed that, logically, Max was part of her imagination, but she had a feeling that she couldn't shake telling her that Max_ had _been there. Somehow their minds had connected in a way that she couldn't have imagined, even if Max had not realized it herself. Like they were bound by threads of fate that frayed as Rachel's life drained away a little more every day._

" _You're so close, but I don't think that we'll be meeting in this lifetime, Max. I..." She pursed her lips together and forced herself to look away. "I wish it could be different."_

_She raised a hand to wipe the tears from her face, surprised to find them turning to ice on her hand. The sensation was beautifully cold and she let out a choked laugh. How was it that she felt more alive while sleeping than she did awake?_

Her eyes opened and dragged her back into reality, as they always did. Each time, she felt more hopeless—as if she had any hope left to lose.

There were no tears left for her to shed in reality, they dried up long ago. Instead, she whispered apologies to those she left behind and wondered if the wind could carry them away, not knowing that, nearby, Max and Chloe marveled at the snow falling in Arcadia Bay.

* * *

**A/N:** It's been a long time since I've written for this fandom, but I hope that this will be enjoyed. I'm testing the waters with this one to see if there's interest at all as I've recently been unable to write. My confidence has been shaken in myself, and I hope to regain it. That's the reason behind the short chapter to start. I like to write them to be a bit longer, and will hopefully do so in the future.

Pairings are undecided. I'm leaning towards AmberPriceField.

I'm not known for having large amounts of fluff in my writing. I'm also sorry for the rambling here.


	2. Images

**A/N:** I took some slight creative liberties with the conversations in Episode 2 to avoid just repeating everything verbatim.

* * *

Max stared at the missing person poster plastered in Blackwell Academy's hallway, one of many. The enigma of Rachel Amber. She had an undeniable beauty about her, and Chloe referred to her as her angel. Yet, the graffiti around Blackwell wasn't as kind in regards to her, no matter how many admirers she had in the school. It felt impossible to learn anything about her.

The posters filled her with an eeriness. An uneasy crawling of her skin. They were reminders that someone was there one day, and then she was just gone. No answers. No clues.

With a deep breath, she turned to head towards art class. Although she wanted to be a photographer and it was an honor to be taught by Mr. Jefferson, she was having a hard time forcing herself to go to class.

She saw Kate talking with Mr. Jefferson outside the door to the classroom. Something about her demeanor felt strange as she turned and stormed past Max.

"Stop! Don't come near me!" she yelled when Max tried to follow her.

Max turned her head and watched Kate pass the missing poster of Rachel, and her stomach turned cold. For a moment, it was Rachel's back facing her as she walked away, not Kate. It was Rachel disappearing into thin air once she left the doors of Blackwell. The urge to throw out her right hand nearly overwhelmed her, but what could she do to help anyone with the short period of time she could reverse.

She saw the shadow of a raven with its wings spread wide on Kate's back. But when she blinked it was gone, leaving her uncertain it had been there at all. It seemed bizarre, but for every ounce of logic that told her it was impossible, another ounce of instinct insisted that it was real and existed in all ways that mattered.

Her organs felt like ice chunks, not flesh. Something was wrong.

Something was _really_ wrong.

When she turned, she saw Mr. Jefferson looking about as unhappy as Kate had, though without the deep sadness that embraced Kate. His unhappiness had an angry tone, almost a frustration to it.

_Never thought I'd be able to read emotions this well._

She kept her head down and headed into the classroom, only to be stopped by Mr. Jefferson.

"Hey, Max… Can I talk to you for a second?" he asked.

Talking was the last thing that Max felt like doing at the moment, but she obliged. "Yeah, sure."

"Are you okay? You look worried."

Max shrugged one shoulder. "I'm worried about Kate," she said. "She's been really down lately."

Not that Max could blame her.

"Is this about that viral video?"

"Kate is really freaked out about it. How is she supposed to focus on anything when she's being tormented all the time?"

"What if she brought this upon herself? She means well, but maybe she doth protest too much… She seems like she's holding back the truth. Have you talked to her?"

"I _have_ talked to her," Max said, sounding as exasperated as she felt. "She needs friends and support… I just wish she'd let me help a little more. I don't want her to become the next Rachel Amber."

"Rachel Amber? What does she have to do with this?" Mr. Jefferson asked, the aggressive tone in his voice forcing Max to restrain herself from physically recoiling.

"I just..." She gestures to the hallway. "It's hard not to think of her with all these posters. I don't want Kate to disappear, too."

Mr. Jefferson looked skeptical, but why would he think that Max wasn't telling the truth? The only piece she held back was the fact that seeing images of Rachel while both awake and asleep were definitely _not_ helping. How could she not think about the ghost that seemed to haunt her?

He opened his mouth, but was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing before he got any words out.

"Excuse me, Max. I have to take this."

He walked away, and Max heard bits of a one-sided conversation, but she didn't care to hear more of his voice at the moment. Not when their talk left a sour taste in her mouth.

She headed into the classroom, not knowing to savor the bits of calm before the next storm hit.

* * *

She stared at the photograph of her and Rachel, taking another long drag of her cigarette. They were dancing on the beach, but Chloe had rarely felt the urge to let herself be free without Rachel around. She remembered the look on Rachel's parents' faces when she showed up asking if Rachel was okay. If she was just upset at Chloe or something because she'd been ignoring all her calls and messages.

They would have found out that Rachel had gone missing eventually, but Chloe still felt that tinge of guilt in her stomach that she broke the news, like she was responsible simply because she broke their bubble of ignorance.

It was nice to fool herself into believing that Rachel just left her behind to chase a dream, but Chloe knew that there was more to it. There had to be, but it was probably something that she was better off not knowing.

Having Max back was great—even if the lack of communication from her over the years still stung—but nothing felt the same. She'd grown accustomed to having Rachel around. They may have never given each other labels, but that didn't mean they didn't have a connection deeper than friendship.

"You were my angel," she whispered. "I wish… I wish I could have been yours."

* * *

Her heart had yet to calm down after talking to Kate on the roof. She'd read stories about suicides. She'd had the usually mental health section in her general health class—even if they skimmed over more material than they should. But she never thought that she would be the one left to talk down a loved one from jumping.

" _It feels like I'm in a nightmare and I can't wake up!"_

_Her head was killing her, but she didn't think that it was the pain that made Rachel Amber's visage stand before her, tears streaming down her face as she stood on the ledge in the rain._

The relief when Kate stepped away and into Max's arms was unimaginable. The mesh of emotions from the day had her acing hear spinning.

"'Viral' is the right word. Like a disease."

Warren's question brought Max back to reality. In her thoughts, she'd forgotten he was there at all.

"You watched it?" Max asked.

"Just one… and a half times."

As much as Max liked to think Warren was a decent person, he was still an average teenage boy. Of course he watched it. Almost everybody at Blackwell had.

"There's something ominous going on at Blackwell. I don't know what, but I have a bad feeling," Max said. She couldn't shake the idea that there was something she needed to do, but she didn't know what. It was like she was running out of time… even if she could rewind it.

"Today proves that," Warren said.

"I think that Kate and Rachel Amber are somehow connected. I just need to find the missing piece to fit them together."

Warren shrugged. "It feels like any conspiracy is possible at Blackwell, and I'm not a big conspiracy guy. There's an air at this academy though, like when you watch a horror movie and you know the monster is right around the corner. You just hope that you can avoid it anyway."

Max felt a chill begin to creep into the air, and not one that could be solely attributed to the evening hour. She looked up and saw the sun fading as it was eclipsed, its light being blocked from reaching the world.

"What the…?"

Warren shook his head, vibrating with a nervous energy. "There's not an eclipse scheduled today—and believe me, I would know."

Max shook her head, rubbing her arms to fight the cold. Warren moved closer and wrapped his arms around her, but she barely felt them. This had to be related to Rachel. She didn't know how or why, but it had to be.

After all, everything Max knew about Rachel made her seem like a force of nature.


	3. Night and Day

As a child, she feared the dark. Somehow, night made everything feel scarier, more uncertain. Uncertainty took over and twisted her thoughts into worst case scenarios. The monsters under the bed and in the closet arrived and started their wait for her. Though it was difficult to tell how much time passed, she knew when it was day or night. The thin streams of light (or lack thereof) gave it away and warned her when the temperature would drop before she found herself freezing again.

As if there was much she could do about it locked away like a prisoner.

She shivered and tried to ignore the thoughts that the darkness brought. Not all of the thoughts had truth to them (at least, she didn't _think_ they did), but the shreds of truth that floated up were ugly realities she didn't want to face.

The lapses of time missing from her mind that she couldn't piece together. The lingering sensation of touch on her skin. The prick of a needle every now and again. Sounds of a camera clicking. Bright flashes of a light. Words in a stern male voice, easily frustrated and angry.

" _You're looking the wrong way!"_

What would she change if she could go back and do it all again? Which moment was it that sent her spiraling onto this path?

The drive and passion to be a model blinded her to who people were, allowing her to see only what purpose they could serve. She missed their darkness, ignored warning signs. Arcadia Bay wasn't that bad of a place. If she could have just seen that and accepted that she had time to realize her dreams, then maybe…

Maybe…

There was no point in reminiscing on it. She wouldn't be getting a chance to fix anything. She wouldn't be able to give out her apologies and try to build a different future. A better future.

She hated it, being caged like this. She hated herself.

If Mark Jefferson (for whom she may have held inappropriate affections in the past) was going to kill her, couldn't he just hurry the fuck up? What was he waiting for?

What if she was already dead? This could be the afterlife, couldn't it? Some sort of punishment for the things she'd done in life. A ghost lost in memories it was forced to relive.

She let her eyes fall shut. The downside of being awake meant that she was allowed to direct her own thoughts, not be the victim to her dreams.

Wind rustled the trees outside. After everything, that sound was the one form of peace she found in the waking world. The whistling of the wind and the burning desire that it would lift her up and whisk her away with it.

_She let her head fall to her dad's shoulder. Even if her ankle hurt less, she knew that she wouldn't be able to walk back on her own. She didn't want to, either. Her dad was a busy man, and she savored these moments where they got to just be a family without the prestige of her father's job following them._

_Fresh air filled her lungs as the gentle breeze tussled her hair. She wished that she could pause time in this moment and live within it forever, but she had dreams for her future. Still, she could savor the moment for now._

She wished she hadn't burnt that photo. After seeing her dad with that woman, she made a rash decision. The world crumbled around her because she hadn't understood what she saw. She'd covered her ears and refused to listen to the story.

With the opening and slamming of the door, her thoughts were pulled from pleasant memories that held a bittersweet taste and her heart started racing as quickly as it could in its weakened state.

Angry footsteps approached her as something was tossed to the ground without care, but she couldn't see what it was.

Mark Jefferson gripped her arm and twisted her to face him, the pinprick of a needle entering her flesh as it had so many times before. He depressed the plunger and as the world twisted and blurred, she wondered if this would finally be the end of it all.

After all, she hadn't liked the look in his eyes. It was different.

It was dark.

* * *

Max sat up in bed, sweat chilling her body as the blanket fell from her and left her exposed to the cold air. As if it would help, she pressed her hand on her chest over her racing heart and tried to calm her breathing.

_What was that? It felt like a dream, but it felt different, too?_

Chloe groaned and turned over, then sat up much slower than Max had. "Max? It's the middle of the night. You okay?"

It took her mind a minute to catch up. She was at Chloe's house, not risking going back to the dorms after almost being caught sneaking around Blackwell.

"It was just a dream," Max said, lying back down. "Or a nightmare. I don't know, but it felt _different_."

Chloe followed her lead and laid back down as well. "Different how?"

Shaking her head, Max said, "I'm not sure, but it was like looking through someone else's eyes. Like I was trapped in the back of their head or something."

"Okay… what was it about? What did you see that freaked you out so much?"

Max took a moment to think about it, realizing that the harder she tried to recall her dream, the less she remembered about it. "Huh… I forgot."

Chloe laughed softly in the darkness. "I guess that's good. Hard to dwell on something you forgot."

"I guess."

"I mean, if you're bothered we can boot up my laptop and look at those camera sites you always bookmark."

"No, I want to get _some_ sleep before class."

Max felt the bed shifting before she felt Chloe's arm drape over her.

Chloe spoke before she had the chance. "Then, go to sleep. Any nightmare will have to go through me first. No need to worry."

Max laughed and rolled her eyes (as if Chloe could see it), but she didn't protest. In fact, she welcomed the contact. Chloe was warm, and she felt secure like this.

It wasn't the first time they slept tangled together, but it was the first time since Max's return and it was different. Not in a bad way, but in a way that left butterflies in Max's stomach and a knot of emotions she couldn't decipher.

She fell asleep without an answer to the questions that piled up more each day, but her dreams were peaceful.

* * *

Chloe watched Max run her hand over the fabric of Rachel's clothes that she pulled from her closet, like she was some sort of psychic who could find a missing person as long as she held something belonging to them. It was just a couple of items, Max had no other options, and Rachel would have wanted to revamp her style given the chance. She could see it in her head, Rachel shoving a pile of clothes into Max's arms and not taking 'no' for an answer.

It brought an old pain with it, but Max's presence eased that a bit. If she lost Max like she had Rachel… She didn't want to think about it. A world without either of her angels was a world in which she did not want to live.

Finally, she'd had enough of Max's delaying. "Stop second-guessing yourself, Max! Put this on and let your inner punk-rock girl come out! You can afford to take chances! Whenever and whatever you want to try... for example, I dare you to kiss me!"

Max almost dropped the clothing, snapping her head around to look at Chloe with wide eyes. "What?"

Chloe bit back her laugh at Max's face. "I double dare you. Kiss me now."

In the moment of hesitation, Chloe felt a twinge of disappointment. She knew Max wouldn't do it—she was into Warren, wasn't she—but she'd hoped that maybe… Maybe there was something that…

But then Max's lips were against hers, and they were so soft and sweet.

It was only a moment, too short for Chloe's preference. But she'd been surprised that Max did it, and the shock made her back away. Stupid. She wondered how Max felt about it, but it was just a dare. It didn't mean anything, did it?

_She felt high walking under the streetlights with Rachel, her head buzzing from their kiss. (Maybe from rocking the play, too, but mostly the kiss.) Their promise to go somewhere else. Anywhere else._

Well, for Chloe, it was a promise to stay this time. She just hoped that Max would stay, too.

Chloe composed herself and slapped on her shit-eating grin to hide her thoughts behind. "Damn, you're hardcore, Max! Now I can text Warren and tell him he doesn't stand a chance... unless he's into girl-on-girl action."

"You are such a dork."

She flopped back onto the bed and left Max to ponder out her wardrobe situation on her own. Waking up next to Max felt natural. Somehow, it felt like Max had been gone for too long and not at all at the same time. Yeah, Max had a nightmare, but Chloe had been there for her. They were partners. In crime. In time. Friends. Best friends. Pirate pals. They were indescribable.

Though it was far from the truth, and she knew it. For the first time in a long time, her life felt perfect.

Almost.


	4. Here and There

**A/N:** This follows the actual episode a lot, but I tried to make it interesting. I also wanted to get it up before midterms start so that I can get into the good stuff after midterms.

* * *

She was afraid, but she couldn't understand why. Try as she might, the unsettled feeling in her stomach remained, churning sour bile into sickness.

She chalked it up to the fact that she wore the clothes of a missing girl to school, but knew that it wasn't the cause of her feeling. That, and the fact that she couldn't shake those notes she found in Nathan's file last night with Chloe.

" _Rachel in the dark room… Rachel in the dark room…"_

" _Alone… Afraid… Alone… Afraid…"_

The second one she didn't know for sure regarded Rachel, but she believed it did. She hoped it did, as demented as that sounded. If it referred to Rachel, then that meant Rachel was alive. Somehow. Somewhere.

Or was alive at the time it was written.

Blood dripped from her nose onto the photograph in her hand. She'd try to fix it all, but could she jump that far in time? Was there really a chance that she could give Chloe the life that she wanted with a happy family? A father she loved who loved her back? An angel who didn't go missing and leave her alone when she needed someone the most?

She wiped the blood from her nose and tried again. She just needed to focus more. She could do this.

She _would_ do this.

* * *

" _Listen, Max, my respiratory system is failing and...and it's only getting worse. I've heard the doctors talking about it when they thought I was zonked out. So I know I'm just putting off the inevitable, while my parents suffer along...and I will, too. This isn't how I want things to end."_

" _What? What are you saying?"_

_Max knew very well what she was saying, but this wasn't Chloe. This wasn't how Chloe was supposed to act. Where was that familiar fire that stirred within her? That determination to overcome the world that beat her down at every opportunity, whether or not she consciously realized it._

_She wasn't supposed to look so fragile, propped up in a hospital bed and connected to machines to help her live. There was no quality of life for her, but it was a life._

" _I'm saying that being with you again has been so special. I just wanted to feel like when we were kids running around Arcadia Bay...and everything was possible. And you made me feel that way today. I want this time with you to be my last memory... Do you understand?"_

_Max nodded, trying to swallow back the lump in her throat and blink away her tears. "Yes, I do."_

_Chloe looked over at her IV, guiding Max with her eyes. "_ _All you have to do is crank up the IV to eleven."_

" _Chloe...I really don't know if I can do this. I had another friend who wanted to...end it all and I did everything I could to try and save her life. How can I be responsible for ending yours? I mean, there's got to be another way."_

_M_ _ax tried to think of something, anything, that could help Chloe, but she knew that it was futile._ _There was no coming back from the state of health that Chloe was in. There was no future for her here._ _It wasn't like with Kate. This was different._

_Max had been out of her element then, but she felt that even more so now._

" _Max, you were there for your friend no matter what. Now I'm asking you to help me the same way."_ _Chloe smiled. She looked so weak and so sad, but there was certainty in her eyes along with a plea to Max._

" _I want to help you, Chloe…"_

_But how could killing someone help them? Was it really a mercy killing? Did Chloe know the magnitude of what she was asking?_

_...Of course, she did. This had to have been thought out. Maybe not to this detail, but Chloe must have been wishing that she could turn up the IV herself for… a while, at least._

" _At least you have a choice. When you want to make a decision, you can just do it. Look at me, I'm at the mercy of...everybody. For once, I want to make my own choice...the most important one of my life. Please...help me, Max."_

" _Chloe…"_

" _I'll just drift asleep...dreaming of us here together...forever," Chloe said, she forced a smile for Max._

_Max took a deep breath before she got up and turned the IV, taking one more glance at Chloe before she touches the IV at all. She sat down again and took one of Chloe's hands in both of her own. She might not be able to feel it, but it was the thought that counted, right?_

" _Thank you so much. I'm so proud of you for following your dreams. Don't forget about me."_

_Max shook her head. "Never. I could never forget you, Chloe."_

" _I love you, Max. See you around."_

" _Sooner than you think," Max said._

Max might have fit in better at school in that world, but was that the crowd she wanted to be part of?

And Rachel was still missing.

And… And…

How could she have stayed in that world? How could saving William have led to a worse future than letting him die?

She heard Chloe say something under her breath, and it snapped her back into reality. She looked around at Chloe's room, the room of independence and rebellion that she remembered and loved.

The tears formed before she could stop them and fell down her face, her breath becoming hitched and stuttered. If she could have controlled her crying, she would have laughed when Chloe had to do a double-take over her shoulder, not believing the scene in front of her.

"Whoa, Max? Are you crying? What's wrong?" Chloe asked, stepping away from her laptop and desk to sit beside Max on her bed.

Max felt Chloe's arms wrap around her, and Max gripped onto Chloe like she was the only anchor keeping her from floating astray.

"I know I kinda spaced out after staying up all night, but you're being hella weird right now, Max," Chloe said. "It's scaring me a bit."

"I'm sorry I'm such a bad friend," Max said through her sobs, burying her face into Chloe's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asked. "You're not a terrible friend, Max. You're the best friend I could have asked for. Were you messing with time or something while I was asleep?"

Max nodded into Chloe's shoulder.

"Right. Of course. Do you wanna talk about it?"

Max shook her head, pulling away from Chloe. But the loss of contact left an emptiness she hadn't expected.

"I'm here if you change your mind," Chloe said.

"I know," Max said, unable to keep the quiver from her voice. She looked at the board they'd created during the night in an attempt to piece together what they knew about Rachel, Nathan, Chloe's step-dad, and the "Dark Room." "But we have business to do first."

Chloe sighed. "Yeah. We better get started."

* * *

She insisted on going to the hospital to see Kate before they tried to piece together the mystery of Arcadia Bay, but standing outside of her room felt surreal. Kate shouldn't have been in a place like this, but nothing about the week had been normal. Yet the week wasn't even over. There was enough time for anything to happen.

Chloe gave her a small nudge. "She's your friend, and you hella saved her life. Just go in. I'll chill out here and let you two have some time."

With a deep breath, Max entered the room. She wasn't sure why her mind conjured up terrible images of a despondent Kate lying in bed, upset that she'd been saved. But after standing on the roof with her, not knowing how it was going to end, anything could have been possible in regards to Kate Marsh.

However, she found herself pleasantly surprised to see Kate in a chair, drawing without the worry lines and sad eyes to which Max had grown accustomed. The windows were not covered and closed like in her dorm, and the sun gave the room a brightness that added to Kate's happier demeanor.

Kate turned her head to see her visitor, and a smile lit up her face in the way it used to before the viral video and Vortex party.

"Max!" Kate said. She got up and crossed the room, enveloping Max in her arms before she had a chance for her mind to catch up.

But once it did, she held onto Kate just as tightly as she had on the roof, like she would fall again without Max there to hold her.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Kate."

"Thanks to you, I am," Kate said. "I can't believe I… Thank you, for being there and showing me how much you cared."

Max shook her head with a smile. "You don't have to thank me. I'm sorry you didn't know how much I cared before you got to that point, but I'm glad that you see how loved you are now."

"I do. I truly do see that now. You should see the letters and postcards I've gotten. And I've received so many flowers that I gave most of them to other patients. They need them more than I do."

It was nice to talk to Kate and see how much better she was doing, to reaffirm that she still had the kind her that made her Kate Marsh, but Max couldn't shake the feeling of time slipping through her hands. Like someone dumped the inside of an hourglass in her hands and told her to hold it. That something bad was waiting to happen once the last grain of sand fell to the ground.

And how was she supposed to handle a responsibility like that? An impossible task?

She managed to save one life. Maybe she could still save another?

Maybe the sand had not all fallen yet.

* * *

Chloe waited in the hallway as promised, standing when she saw Max leave the room and close the door behind her. She tried to read Max and figure out if it had gone well, but the expression on Max's face made it difficult to discern one way or the other.

What was she supposed to say in a moment like this?

"Max…?"

Max looked at her and gave a small, sad smile. "She's still Kate," she said. "Like, the Kate she used to be before the party and the video."

"That's good. I'm glad, and I'm sorry I got upset when you answered her call the other day," Chloe said.

"It's okay. It's been a crazy week, you know?"

"Yeah," Chloe said. "I, uh, I know what it's like to have a friend in the hospital and how useless it makes you feel. If you need a minute before we get going, that's okay."

Max nodded. "Thanks, but I think we need to hurry. I have a bad feeling, and I want to save your friend, too. I want to save Rachel."

Chloe thought about the notes and pictures of Rachel that Frank had. It hurt to think that Rachel had those secrets and hadn't trusted Chloe enough to share them, but she wanted to hear from Rachel why. Why did she hide that? Why Frank? Why… not her?

Was she not good enough? Did Max think she wasn't good enough either?

"Then, your chariot is waiting… in the glamorous hospital parking lot," Chloe said, wrapping one arm around Max's shoulders and heading to the elevator.

"So chivalrous."

Chloe grinned at her.

Max was doing this for her, because she shared how much Rachel meant to her. How Rachel was there when Max wasn't. So, she decided, no matter how their hunt ended, she was going to show Max how much she appreciated having her back in her life.

_Something_ had to go right in her life for once, and she was going to make sure this was it.


	5. A Step Closer

She was floating. Warm and… something stopped her mind from saying 'safe.' Maybe warm wasn't the best description either given the slight chill on her skin. She wasn't cold though. It was like floating in the ocean, with cold water teasing her in waves while the sun warmed what was exposed on the surface… Maybe that wasn't the right description either, but she didn't try to chase those thoughts down. She would stay, comfortable and oblivious, right where she was. No worries. No pain. No thoughts beyond the smooth air that cradled her in the emptiness.

Time ceased to matter. Her identity no longer mattered. She was woven into the fabric of the universe. She couldn't breathe, but she found that she didn't need to. When she tried to open her eyes, she found that she couldn't. Not out of force, but because her eyelids were so heavy that they refused to budge. She felt strangely exhausted, like it would be alright to keep her eyes closed for eternity and rest. Perhaps it was better to be blind. What was there worth seeing?

Someone called her name in the distance, or what used to be her name. Rachel. What an ordinary name for an extraordinary girl. But Rachel hadn't been an extraordinary girl, even if she had seen herself as such.

That girl was a disappointment. A failure. An idiot who got herself trapped in an impossible situation because she thought she was smarter than those around her. More clever.

She didn't want to be that girl anymore, wasting her life for a thrill. She didn't want to spend time looking for a missing piece she wasn't sure she would find.

A tug jerked her down. With each tug, she grew closer to the pain and the reality she so desperately wished to escape. Farther away from the comfort she'd enjoyed so much. In any way she could, she tried to fight it.

A tug. Why did she have to return to that place?

Another tug. Why did she have to go back to that life of torment at the hands of a man she trusted?

One more tug and she jerk upright, her body convulsing as sensation returned. Breath filled her lungs in painful gasps that shook her. The pain and fear that felt so far away were now suffocatingly close, and she fell from euphoria.

"We almost lost her," a voice said. It wasn't filled with sympathy. She caught only notes of cold calculation and fact. "We need to be more careful."

"Why? What for?" a second voice asked. This one was much more shaken from the wavering of his words. Angry, almost.

The words faded, like the people who spoke moved elsewhere, farther from her until their voices were little more than white noise.

With a clearer mind, she might have been able to place the voices. But she didn't even try to in the haze surrounding her. Why bother? What difference would it make who talked? It wasn't like they were going to get her help if she'd been here for so long already and they wanted to be more careful, not panicking to find help for her.

They almost lost her?

They _should_ have lost her.

* * *

Chloe tapped her thumbs against the steering wheel as she drove. Not in any particular rhythm, but enough to take the edge off of her growing anxiety. She told herself she wasn't afraid, but she couldn't figure out what it was she _did_ feel. Beside her, Max gave off the same nervous energy. The same uncertainty about what they might find at the end of their journey.

How did Rachel tie into this? What about Kate and the strange experience she told Max about? Being told that she was going to a hospital and then hearing a man who was definitely not a doctor had to be terrifying. Not having the memories of what happened in combination with feeling gross—as she put it—had to be disturbing.

As selfish as it seemed, she was glad it hadn't happened to her. That incident with Nathan had left enough of an emotional scar. Fucking creep trying to take pictures of her like that.

"What do you think we'll find?" Max asked.

Chloe shook her head. "Nothing good. Fucking Prescott. Why would he have some place in the middle of nowhere? Why would he take Kate there, and contact Frank?"

CSI: Arcadia Bay turned out to be… shockingly fruitful. Which was good because it meant that they were closer to finding out what was going on in this shit-hole town.

And bad because it meant that something was going on in this shit-hole town.

"Do you think…?"

"Maybe," Chloe said, cutting her off. She didn't need Max to finish the question to know what she was asking. "I don't know. I don't want to think about it."

Nathan wrote those notes about Rachel, what if they found something else about her at that stupid barn?

Her stomach twisted. For so long she wanted answers about Rachel, but now that she could be close to getting them, she didn't want to know. Maybe it was better she kept believing that Rachel skipped town alone to live it big in Los Angeles. Even if she'd been left behind again, it was better than any alternative explanations about her disappearance.

Chloe could handle being left behind again if it meant Rachel was okay.

When the smell filled her car, she wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. Manure," she said.

"The signature scent of farmland," Max said. "I guess that means we're getting close."

"Yeah. Going out into the country is always the best idea in horror movies." Chloe's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"This isn't a horror movie, Chloe."

"You're right. This time it's real."

* * *

Chloe stopped the truck once they pulled up to the barn, and Max realized she was right. This was real, not a horror movie. No matter how much it felt like it.

Getting out of the truck felt familiar now, like this was how they were supposed to travel to their adventures. Like they were still playing pirate and upgraded their ship into a pick-up truck. Their lives were always meant to be intertwined like this. They were meant to chase mysteries together.

But last time ended with them split apart for years. Would this end the same way?

"Great," Chloe said.

Max walked around to the other side of the truck and saw what Chloe reacted to: fresh tire tracks.

"I hope they aren't coming back too soon."

Chloe walked towards the barn with confidence in her steps. Determination. "I don't know what they were just here for, but I hope we aren't too late to help another girl."

"Yeah," Max said, following Chloe. "Me too."

They split and went separate around the barn, looking for an entrance. While she didn't mention it, her skin crawled as she looked around the area. It shouldn't have—everything about the place was about as normal as anyone would expect from a barn—but she knew something was going on here. Something sinister.

Max found a sheet of metal, misshapen in regard to the hole it was meant to cover. She gripped one edge of the sheet with both hands and tried to move it, pleased when it shifted without too much effort.

"Chloe!" she called, tugging at the sheet as it hitched on an unseen obstacle and refused to budge farther. "Over here! I found something."

Chloe rounded to her side of the barn and her face lit up. "Way to go, Maximus!"

Together they shoved the sheet to the side and ducked into the hole it covered.

_I know we said this isn't a horror movie, but it definitely has a_ Blair Witch _feel to it._

* * *

Barn in the middle of nowhere: check.

A rickety-ass chest full of Prescott memorabilia: check.

One hella weird bunker entrance underneath a hatch in the barn's floor that Max managed to open through use of the superpowers Chloe had yet to fully understand: check.

The strong scent of antiseptic hit her first, and she looked at the shelves in the entrance covered with bottles of cleaning supplies that shouldn't be needed in a storm bunker. What sort of severe storm preparation was cleaning supplies?

It reminded her of the hospital, and the last time she was at the hospital…

_Rachel's head fell to her shoulder, her body moving like a rag doll with the motions of the truck._

" _Hold on, Rachel," Chloe begged. It was hard to see the road through her tears, and even harder to drive with her shaking hands._

Frank gave them time to escape, she remembered. Though she might dislike a lot about Frank—especially in regard to Rachel—he helped her save her life. That was worth… something.

Maybe.

She shared a look with Max before they turned into the main room of the bunker, communicating their shared apprehension. The fear about what they might find.

But they took the next step anyway.

"Echoes," Max whispered, a touch of excitement at her revelation despite the dire implications of the place in which they found themselves.

"What?"

"I feel Rachel's presence, but it's different. It's an echo." Max gestured at the room. "She's been here. I know it."

"Did that sensing ability come bundled with your Super Max powers?"

Max shrugged. "I don't know. I think that Rachel and I are somehow connected. Or that since my powers unlocked to save a life, they've made me more in tune with life in general. Either way, I know Rachel has been here."

Chloe looked from the desk to the backdrop and professional photography setup. At first glance, it appeared normal. It was the little details that flooded the room with an eerie uneasiness. The plastic covering on the couch. The opened cabinet of red binders. The sterile white coloring every surface.

The tray of little bottles and syringes.

"That totally doesn't make me feel better," Chloe said.

"Comforting or not, it's a clue."

"Yeah," Chloe said, so softly she wasn't sure Max heard it.

No matter how she felt about what she found about Rachel in Frank's RV, she would never want Rachel to end up in this place. Maybe Rachel betrayed her. Maybe she didn't.

Chloe's feelings for her remained, even when she tried to push them down and bottle them deep inside.

"I guess we better take a look to see what we can find."

Chloe headed to the small work area and its mass of red binders. Besides, in the age of technology, it would be logical that she'd find something on the computer sitting atop that desk.

She got closer, and had to force herself to continue. She needed to open the cabinet door farther to confirm what she thought she saw.

There were names written on the binders. Female names only.

She glanced over her shoulder at Max, who poked around at the other oddities of the room… as if there were a shortage of them. "Take a look at this, Max," Chloe said.

Chloe didn't want Max to see the binders or the pictures on the desk, but they'd started this hunt. They had to pull through the tough parts of it, too. Together.

"This is…"

"Disgusting? Convoluted? Wrong? Yeah, I feel that," Chloe said. "Let's see what we can find on this thing."

She turned and nudged the mouse to clear the screensaver on the monitor, but found her lungs void of air when the screen came up. She might not know Kate, but she knew _that_ was Kate.

"Holy shit."

Max hovered over her shoulder. "Oh no, Kate... No..."

The pictures were in black and white, and that made them all the more haunting in addition to the prone positions that Kate lied in and her glassy eyes.

Chloe glanced to the binders stacked upon each other next to the monitor. The opened one on top had some more pictures of Kate carefully placed within the pages. She hesitated to touch the binder, like it was something sacred. Like touching it would only harm Kate more.

But if they wanted to help Kate find answers and closure, there was more they needed to know. So, she closed Kate's binder and swapped it for the binder underneath, but it fell from her hands once she glimpsed the name written on its spine.

_Rachel A-3_

Max hadn't noticed, pulling two more of the binders from the cabinet and flipping them open. "Chloe, these two are empty. 'Victoria' and… and 'Max.' I think. I think this one is supposed to be mine. What if I'm supposed to be next?"

Max's voice wavered and broke, not wanting to believe what she was seeing. Chloe tried to respond, but the reality of their situation—as surreal as it seemed—froze her. She slowly opened Rachel's binder, but she knew what face would look back at her inside.

"Rachel... This can't be real... These are all—these are all posed shots, right? Right?"

She looked back and found two more binders with 'Rachel A' and a number on them. She pulled them from their shelf and looked through them.

"Chloe. Look at her face. She's... out of it. They're all out of it. Kate, Rachel, everyone here."

Then, comparing the pictures from each binder next to each other, Chloe noticed something that made her heart skip a beat and filled her with a hope that had been dimmed long ago.

"Max, look! The early pictures and the later ones are taken in different places," Chloe said. "And she looks so different in the third binder. So… So drained and thin."

"Like it's been a long time between them."

Chloe pulled one of the photos of Rachel from the third binder and closed the rest of them. "We should clean up and figure out where she is in this picture. The faster we solve this shit, the safer we— _you—_ are."

"What if—"

Chloe shook her head. "No, Max. I'm _not_ losing you, too. We're going to stick together, solve this mystery, get Rachel back, and put this sick bastard in prison."

They closed the door behind them. Chloe tried to not get her hopes up, but after so long of not knowing anything about what happened to Rachel, she found so much. She wrapped her arm around Max's shoulders as they made their way to the truck. They both might have been shaken, but Chloe hadn't seen her own name on an empty binder. She couldn't imagine how Max must be feeling about all they saw there.

But one thing stuck out the most.

Rachel could be _alive_.


End file.
